Alicia Keys Supports "Africa Now" at Bonhams

Last Year Bonhams New Bond Street in London hosted Britain's first ever auction sale of works exclusively by contemporary African artists entitled "Africa Now." Now, famed singer, songwriter, actress, author, and philanthropist (with extreme interest in Africa), Alicia Keys, is showing her support for Bonhams New York, which will host the "Africa Now: Contemporary African Art" sale on March 10, 2010. Keys' charity, "Keep a Child Alive" will partner with Bonhams for a VIP reception, which is sponsored by Afren plc, the African focused independent oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in several African countries.

Keys and Leigh Blake founded "Keep a Child Alive" in 2003 with the mission of providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment and health care to children and families with HIV/ AIDS in Africa and India. The organization has served more than 250,000 children and families.

Keys talks about her organization's work and her recent trip to Africa,

"It's amazing to return to Africa and witness those who were so ill and near death, being brought back to life because of the medical care they were able to receive. Just knowing that your time and effort has helped build paediatric wings in hospitals and supply medicine to those who might not otherwise receive it, gives me a real sense of purpose."

The "Africa Now" sale at Bonhams New York will be the first commercial auction of African contemporary art ever held in the US and features work by both new and established artists.

CLICK HERE to read the entire ArtDaily Article associated with this post.

Art Adds: Public Art on NYC's Taxis

New York City's taxis are frequently topped with advertisements. However, this month approximately 500 cabs will replace their ads with art in a project called "Art Adds." Las Vegas company Show Media, which owns about half the cones (as their called) that rest on top of NYC taxis, decided to take on the project in order to give back to the people of NYC (at a cost of nearly $100k in lost revenue).

John Amato, one of Show Media's owners, contacted the Art Production Fund (a NYC nonprofit that displays art around the city), asking the organization's co-founders to select artists for the projects. Appropriately, they chose Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz, and Yoko Ono: three New York-based artists whose works fit (conceptually and physically) into the confined spaces of the cabs' cones. Each artist's work will appear on about 160 cabs.

To read more about each artist, how they responded to the project, and the entire article associated with this post, click here.

For a list of art exhibitions going on around NYC, click here.